Both Emily Brontë and her only novel Wuthering Heights have been called “deranged”, “crazed” or (especially online, in the wake of the recent film) “unhinged”. So it’s a relief to read a biography where she comes across, instead, as more grounded, steady, sane. Deborah Lutz, whose 2015 book The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects made such an impression, anchors her narrative in solid things: the too-short bed Emily squeezed herself into; the pockets she stuffed with paper, pencils and moorland treasures; the laundry she looked after, including stockings with “AB5” sewn into them to indicate they were her sister Anne’s fifth pair. Lutz’s Emily is an eminently practical woman who wrote “while baking, in front of a peat fire perched on a little stool, or while walking” and who “used the tactile keeping of order as a prop and prompt to lose herself in the sublimity of art-making and moor-haunting”.For Lutz, Emily’s writing is also “tactile”. She counts the sampler Emily made at 10 as one of her “earliest extant writings”, and while other scholars have dismissed it as a collection of copied platitudes, Lutz notices that one line Emily stitched, from Proverbs – “Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?” – suggests that maybe she was already thinking about wuthering. She lovingly describes the little books the Brontë children made as “delightful, tiny objects to match their toys and still-small selves, texts holding secretive and insular qualities”. She calls the one-page diaries Emily made with Anne “a new writing practice, one that feels distinctly modern, even avant garde”, as they crammed in descriptions of their cooking, their chatter, their animals, their made-up heroines; stream of consciousness nearly a century before Virginia Woolf.The wilder stories get an airing too, but Lutz doesn’t sensationalise them, or make them the key to everything; she doesn’t seem to see Emily as an impossible riddle, as most biographers have. Did Emily get bitten by a rabid dog and rush into the kitchen, seize an iron from the fire and cauterise the wound herself? Yes, but in doing so she was following the medical advice of the day. Did she cultivate “inwardness”? Yes, but there are no posthumous armchair diagnoses here, more an understanding that a writer managing a busy house might want to get good at preserving her own imaginative space. Did Emily get into some kind of romantic trouble with a working-class man (or woman) at 16? Possibly – but her fine writing about love across class divides could also have been inspired by her parents’ marriage. Did she have an affair with another female teacher in her job at Law Hill school? Maybe, but Lutz is more interested in the idea that Emily might have learned from Anne Lister, the real-life Gentleman Jack who lived nearby, to develop “androgyny and boldness”. I only found it a slight shame that Lutz included the story of Emily beating up her dog Keeper, which I suspect was invented by Charlotte’s first biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell.Lutz has previously written about Victorian mourning ritual, and she is excellent on the intimacy of Emily’s writing about grief. She wonders if watching her mother spend seven months “in a liminal state – almost dead but still with the living” is why Emily’s work teemed with graves, and with “the terrible passion of the gloomy aggrieved still above earth”. She calls Wuthering Heights “one of the greatest haunted-house stories ever written”. She feelingly describes how a vault was built to bury Emily’s mother inside the church, and how Emily saw it reopened for one sister, then another, and then her brother – which makes Heathcliff’s obsessive desire to dig up Catherine’s grave and, later, to merge with her under the earth, seem less bizarre.By locating Emily firmly in what she calls the texture of her everyday, Lutz reads Wuthering Heights not as (per the film) a crazed bodice-ripper, drunk on its own style, but a virtuoso debut novel from an author who had honed her craft since childhood and developed her own idiosyncratic creative process. This biography is, also, a wonderful book for writers on how to write the stories only you can, in snatched pockets of time if you have to, and against impossible odds. Lutz uses Charlotte’s correspondence with potential publishers to try to trace the way Emily wrote and rewrote her novel, speculating that she began with an “inner core of drama” after which “a backstory [was] built out” and then finally a frame was added, “ensnaring the narrative”. This attention to process is a refreshing change from the idea that she simply blurted it on to the page and had no idea what she had done.On the billion dollar question of whether there is a lost second novel, Lutz seems pretty certain Emily was writing one, perhaps inspired by political upheaval in Europe. She even lets us dream that Emily might have stashed it in a wall at her house (as Lister did with her scandalous diary) or buried it on the moors from where – perhaps – it might one day be disinterred.
Life behind the scenes at a world-famous museum will be the focus of a presentation in Keighley.Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, is guest speaker at the next meeting of Keighley and District Local History Society.Anyone is welcome to attend the event, at the civic centre on Wednesday, May 13.The museum, dedicated to the lives and works of the Brontë family, was set up within the parsonage in 1928.It was founded – and continues to be administered – by the Brontë Society, and as the collection grows there are plans for expansion.Ann says: "My talk looks at the fascinating story of how the collection at the Brontë Parsonage Museum came together, and how it continues to grow as exciting new discoveries come to light."I’ll explore the development of the museum, the work that goes on behind the scenes, and some of the film and TV adaptations of the Brontës’ lives and works – which have played an important role in the museum’s history. I will also talk about some of the exciting plans we have for the parsonage and our presence in Haworth."Keighley and District Local History Society committee member, Tim Neal, says: "Around 20 members of the history society visited the parsonage last year and were given an exclusive peek into the inner sanctum of the museum by Ann. We are delighted that she has agreed to come along to talk to a much wider audience at our May meeting."The meeting is being held upstairs in the main hall of the civic centre, in North Street.A lift is available at the front of the building, and inside, for anyone who needs it.Doors open at 7.15pm.The meeting starts at about 7.20pm, and should finish around 8.30pm.Admission is £3.50 – or free for history society members, who also have the option of joining the meeting via Zoom. (Alistair Shand)
Pamela Howorth, 59, bought a building in 2003 on Main Street in Haworth which she originally set up as a lingerie store called Oh La La.By 2020, the business evolved into a vintage shop, rebranding it ‘The Original Bronte Stationery’.The recent Wuthering Heights film produced, written and directed by Emerald Fennel was filmed at Haworth.Ms Howorth told the Yorkshire Post she has since noticed a surge of young people visiting the village.“We’ve noticed it’s a lot busier in Haworth now,” Ms Howorth said.“It’s a different crowd that is coming, it’s a younger audience, the TikTok generation that seems to be coming.“We noticed it last year; a younger audience was [visiting]. It was a big change.”Ms Howorth and a group of businesswomen watched the recent film adaptation of Wuthering Heights.“Haworth has got a lot of strong female business owners - we have a little group called The Main Street Ladies,” she said.“We all went together to Hebden Bridge Picture House to watch [Wuthering Heights] which was really good. We all really enjoyed it.“I mean it’s not true to Wuthering Heights, it’s not representative of the book as such, it’s an interpretation of it but as a film in its own right I thought the cinematography of it, the way it was filmed, it was very powerful. It was very gripping. You could have heard a pin drop [at the cinema]; it was so quiet during the whole film.”Ms Howorth was captivated by the lives of the Bronte sisters since she moved to Haworth.“When I first came to Haworth, I didn’t know very much about the Brontes really, they were things I’ve learned as I’ve gone along,” she said.“How strong they were for women in that time to do what they did, to write the books that they wrote, having to write under the names of men because women weren’t recognised as being able to write things like that and it wasn’t accepted that they did.“It just makes you realise what strong women they must have been. The fact that they all died so young, late 20s and early 30s, they’d not even lived a life.“In that short period of time they lived a long life. They were very well read, they were part of the Romantic Era. I think their father did a good job educating them, a lot more so than people recognise.” (Liana Jacob)
Paired reading draws on the central role that making connections takes in CPM. By reading two books at once throuugh the lens that they are related to each other, a reader draws connections to the real-word influences on the plot. An example of a book pairing is reading Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” alongside Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s “The Madwoman in the Attic.” While the connection between this pairing is rather direct — as Gilbert and Gubar’s book discusses the feminist implications of the character Bertha in “Jane Eyre” — the two books don’t have to be explicitly related. The goal is to critically engage with a piece of fiction by supplementing it with theoretical learning. (Cadence Merker)
by Alyson BaughDigital Literature Review, 13(1), 130–140 (2026)The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë, was published in the Victorian period, and Netflix’s TV series Maid was released in 2021. Despite being from different time periods, both stories explore domestic abuse, particularly through the significance of space and environment. Both texts use their individual stories to explore the double meaning of space and the reclamation of domestic spaces, and to redefine what makes a home a home.
And though the response to Emerald Fennell’s 2026 film version of Wuthering Heights has been pretty mixed, there’s no denying it’s brought about a bit of a Brontë boom; sales of the book have skyrocketed.(If you ask us, that’s a good reason to adapt the two Brontë novels that have never had a TV or movie version made).To me, that also means we’re long overdue for an Elizabeth Gaskell revival. After all, the author is said to have been influenced by Austen’s Pride & Prejudice when writing North & South (to great success, IMO).She also wrote the world’s first controversial Brontë biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë; she had been friends with the subject. (Amy Glover)
Unlike Welles, however, Herrmann was able to stay relatively prolific in the industry, as his distinctive style and endless well of ideas made him equally suited to epic dramas like Jane Eyre and The Snows of Kilimanjaro and genre classics of the sci-fi and fantasy realms, including The Day the Earth Stood Still and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. What really separated him from his contemporaries, though, was an understanding of how to build suspense in the still relatively young medium of sound film, shedding the melodramatic swells of old Hollywood for something much fresher, more contemporary, and often experimental, including an embrace of electronic instruments. (Andrew Clayman)
Honor the heroine in your life with napkins that celebrate four female-centric literary classics: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women. Handmade and full of character, they’re sure to be the life of any party, whether a book club gathering or happy hour at home. (Holly Carter and Rae Ann Herman)
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by Libby Tempest, Vice-Chair of the Gaskell SocietyWed 29 Apr, 7:00pmOnline via ZoomThis introductory talk explores the relationship between two giants of nineteenth century literature. Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell were opposites in many ways. Yet they were profoundly interested in each other’s work and lives. Their first meeting in the Lake District in 1850 led to a real friendship. Charlotte had written the instant classic Jane Eyre and then Shirley, while Elizabeth’s astounding debut novel, Mary Barton had been well-received.This talk uses letters, writing and contemporary accounts to try and discover what held the friendship between these two extraordinary women together. With speaker Libby Tempest, Vice-Chair of the Gaskell Society.The second in the Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell mini-season, in partnership with Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.
I loved literature, but nothing I read had prepared me for life after birth. What came after marriage was glossed over by the Victorian fiction I adored: Jane Eyre’s Mr Rochester has recovered his sight enough to see the child she puts in his arms and, unlike her author, she does not die a pregnancy-related death.
Adriana Trigiani recommendsJane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë“Every summer, I reread Jane Eyre. I love that story. Because it's about a poor girl who's shunned by her family, thrown out, has no reason ever, at any point in her life, to do the right thing. But she's got a moral code. And she cannot be deterred from her path of being a decent human being. So that's the kind of historical fiction I like.” —Adriana Trigiani (Sarah Vincent)
Wed 4 Feb – Thu 31 DecCharlotte Brontë's bracelet is currently on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum alongside other examples of mourning jewellery. The intricate, delicate bracelet features hair from two people, believed to be Charlotte's sisters, Emily and Anne. During the Victorian era, hair jewellery was fashionable and widely worn and it was common practice to make mourning jewellery incorporating the hair of a deceased relative.In February 2026, Oscar-nominated actress and producer Margot Robbie wore a replica of this bracelet with a custom Dilara Findikoglu dress inspired by it.
Mon 23 Feb – Thu 31 Dec'A Book of Friendship' is now on display in the Museum. This prop from Emerald Fennell's new film "Wuthering Heights" is the scrapbook Isabella (Alison Oliver) makes for Catherine (Margot Robbie) as a Christmas present.On loan from LuckyChap Entertainment. Display dates are subject to change.
Gone Like Dreams - with Leeds Arts University
Sat 25 – Sun 26 AprHow can we reframe and illuminate history?'Gone Like Dreams' is an exhibition of publications by Level 5 BA(Hons) Illustration students from Leeds Arts University. The students have been dreaming and speculating on the Brontës’ experiences, taking inspiration from the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the surrounding moors. Through their research, they have pieced together fragments of the Brontës' lives to create their own archive.The Brontës are the most famous literary family of all time. They were complex, challenging individuals, each with their own outlook and experiences. But they were also siblings arguing by the fire, stepping from rock to rock, writing about the world they knew and wishing others into existence.We invite you to walk in their footsteps and step into their worlds, even for a moment.Location: Brontë Event Space in the Old School Room, HaworthPoster by: @livditchburn_art @yasmin.illustrates @aaaangel_gy
A Musical tribute by Michael and Christine O'Dowd to the celebrated 19th-century Brontë family of Yorkshire was hosted by the Banagher Bronte Group last weekend to mark Charlotte Brontë's birthday.The tribute was a melodic cycle of ten original studio-recorded songs. 40 people attended the event in Crank House. James Scully introduced the world premiere programme of nine songs and lyrics.He also requested a minute’s silence to mark the passing of Kieran Keenaghan, his great friend, historical colleague and good friend of Banagher Brontë Group.Michael and Christine delivered the relevant historical Brontë information for each of the songs, thus enhancing and informing the audience’s experience. A stunning projected film complemented the songs and music and raised the show to a very sophisticated level.Thornton, Yorkshire was the birthplace of the Brontës. Queen Camilla visited in 2025 and learned about the famous literary family. The first song was Brontë Birthplace, Maker of Dreams. Next was Maria, the mother of the family, singing a lullaby to Charlotte. Then, We are the Brontës by the youthful Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne. Followed by Emily, I am a woman.Branwell’s Lament, showed him as lovelorn and melancholic. Anne’s Evensong is a nightly prayer. The Reverend Patrick’s Blessing, prays for divine favour. Charlotte and Arthur's Waltz was a prelude to romance. Charlotte's Way represented the happy couple in Banagher. Charlotte died in 1854. Arthur Bell Nicholls lived in Banagher for 66 of his 80 years. In Forever Free, a schooner represents Freedom floating on a friendly sea to the divine underworld.Frances Browner did a workshop on the Brontës for 6th class in the National School. The fruits of that, were readings of their own poems by Caoimhe Teehan, Maddie Mahon and Diarmuid Boylan to the very appreciative adult audience. Well done to them and their teacher Michaela Keenaghan. Adult readers were James Scully, Courtney Caitlin Phillips, Caleb Phillips, Eileen Casey, Francis Browner. Courtney and Caleb from Alabama also duetted and entertained as singer and musician. Jeannenn and Greg Eastway from Australia and Betsy Pearson from Ohio enjoyed the welcome. Well, That Beats Banagher!Thanks to the Banagher Bronte Group committee, James Scully, Maebh O’Regan, Nicola Daly, Sean O’Regan, Sean Corrigan, Donie Hogan, Frances Browner, and Cora Stronge Smith provided a memorable day and thank Amanda Pedlow and Karen Gray for their support, encouragement and direction for the project. Also Maebh O’Reagan for the art on the back cover of the memorable programme by Brosna Press, Nicola Daly for flower bouquets and the yellow Arthur Bell Rose.Finally, Sean Corrigan who mastered the intricate electronics and the film screen donated by the very generous late Kieran Keenaghan. (Eddie Alford)
Ideas of time pervade the arrangement of the exhibition and its title, ‘I Set Out, I Walked Fast’, which is drawn from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Re-reading the novel while working in her New Zealand studio, Grosse was struck by Jane’s continuous movement and action as a woman of her time, noting that merely by walking she propels the story forward. Similarly, the exhibition brings together paintings from different periods of Grosse’s practice into a single, interconnected environment, allowing her to traverse swathes of time and register change: an effect that ‘almost repaints’ the works. Across the three spaces of the gallery, each work functions as a ‘plot’ point or ‘node within a spider’s web’ that constantly ‘generates new strands of activity’. In some cases, this process is made literal: canvases painted in previous in-situ installations are brought into the exhibition, carrying ‘the structure and thought of that past show’ with them.
A stormy, emotionally charged literary classic is having a major moment in 2026. According to Goodreads’ latest data on the most-read classics in the last few months, readers have been gravitating toward one famously debated novel above all others so far this year: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.It’s probably no surprise that the 19th-century novel is topping the list. A new film adaptation released in February has reintroduced the story to audiences, sparking fresh discussion around its famously polarizing characters and bleak emotional landscape. (Devon Forward)
La Cadera de Eva (in Spanish) suggests a reading guide to know the Brontës (using a very questionable image without warning or context).
El arco se extenderá hasta que, tres décadas después, Esther dará a luz a un niño, Jimmy, o el auténtico protagonista, siguiendo el modelo de madre subrogada (y tatuada con un extracto de Jane Eyre que sirve de lema existencial) tras un pacto con la mujer asexual para la que antes ha ejercido de au pair (el territorio irvingniano), ya que su proyecto vital estará en la construcción del futuro Estado de Israel. (Antonio Lozano) (Translation)
"When I wrote this book, I was just being all the characters," Micallef says. "To get into their heads, I had to know how they sounded and how they thought."But Micallef did need to change his methods slightly. He couldn't get a laugh with a funny face, voice or act-out — but he could make oblique references to everything from ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. (Hannah Story and Claire Nichols)
“Wuthering Heights”If you love “Running Up That Hill”, it’s likely you’ll also be fond of this song, which Bush wrote when she was just 18. “Wuthering Heights” was Bush’s debut single and made her the first female to reach No. 1 with an entirely self-written song. It’s also sung from the perspective of Catherine Earnshaw, a character in Emily Brontë’s novel.“It was a subject matter that had been going around in my head for a long time,” Bush shared in an interview. “I’d originally seen the end of a TV series in England, and it had really stuck in my head. And, uh, I read the book last year, and after reading that I just had to write [Wuthering Heights].” (Kat Caudill)
Driving Amazing TrainsC4, 8pmPaul Merton goes from Ravenglass to Dalegarth in the Lake District and then, after Windermere and Brontë country visits, travels from Pickering to Whitby. It’s pleasing stuff, and his journey sheds light on an intractable problem of rail travel: leaves on the line. “A classic railway issue,” he says as the train driver uses a mechanical dropper to put sand in front of the wheels to add traction and stop them slipping down the hill. (Helen Stewart)
3. Lakeside Lodge, Damems, West YorkshirePerhaps not suitable for younger children because of its waterside location, this smart lodge nonetheless has real wow factor. Glass doors and a panoramic deck provide views over the water, beckoning you for a spin in the rowing boat or a spot of fishing. Families can enjoy wildlife watching, as well as train spotting — with steam engines passing by on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. It’s handy for the Brontë sisters’ home town of Haworth too, which can be reached from nearby Damems station (a request stop) for an excellent family outing. (Oliver Berry)
The Heights, published by Calder Valley Poetry in 2026 and launched at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, is the work that comes out of that position. It is a pamphlet rooted in a specific place, a specific family history, and a specific literary inheritance
by Lydia MacPhersonCalder Valley PressApril 2026
Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell‘s take on the classic Emily Brontë novel starring Margot Robbie an d Jacob Elordi, is set to premere on HBO Max on Friday, May 1, debuting on HBO linear the following day at 8:00 p.m. ET.A version with American Sign Language will also stream exclusively on HBO Max, performed by ASL Dubbers Leila Hanaumi and Giovanni Maucere, and directed by Justin Jackerson. (Kennedy French)
As I climbed into the four-poster bed of my regency-styled bedroom, I had to remind myself this was real. Tonight, I was sleeping in a room where members of the Brontë family had slept some 200 years ago, in the building where Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—the literary sisters who gave the world Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall respectively—were born. As a travel writer, I’ve slept in many wonderful places, but this felt particularly surreal.Having joined a new wave of Brontë-curious readers in the wake of Emerald Fennell’s recent Wuthering Heights film adaptation, my stay at the Brontë Birthplace—a museum that offers overnight board—in the small English village of Thornton was one part of a literary tour readers can string together to explore the homes, landscapes, and inspirations behind the sisters’ novels. The county of Yorkshire in northern England is both their, and my, childhood home. I wanted to delve deeper into the lives they led and explore their connection to this familiar moorland scenery.My drive to the Brontë Birthplace, which sits on the outskirts of the city of Bradford (the United Kingdom’s city of culture in 2025), seemed unremarkable until I reached Thornton’s historic center. Here, lanes became narrower and buildings noticeably older, dating from the late Georgian to the early Victorian eras. Tiny “snickets” (lanes) ran between them. Faded shop facades echoed the former community where the Brontë siblings’ father, Patrick, worked as a perpetual curate (a type of parish priest in the 19th-century Anglican church).A short walk from their Market Street home led me to the ruined Chapel of St. James—or the Bell Chapel—where the famous siblings were baptized. Beside an ivy-strewn bell tower, a section of the original church wall was etched with the words: “Thornton: my happiest years 1815–1820” followed by Patrick’s name.One of the most distinctive Brontë-themed walks in the area is a nine-mile route marked by four “Brontë Stones.” Created by novelist and poet Michael Stewart, the trail links Thornton with Haworth, where the family spent most of their lives.Three of the commemorative stones are dedicated to each sister and one is dedicated to the three siblings collectively. Each is inscribed with a bespoke verse from famous writers such as poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and singer Kate Bush.Traveling to Haworth by car from Thornton will take you less than 20 minutes and, once you’re there, the village’s streets are well worth exploring if you’re not put off by their steep inclines. The soot-blackened gritstone buildings and mélange of converted mills speak to the region’s textile manufacturing past. When the Brontë sisters were alive, Haworth’s cobbled Main Street would have had everything from blacksmiths and joiners to stone masons and grocers.I passed a former tea merchant that once sold writing paper to Charlotte, plus the Barraclough clockmakers (now the Hawthorn restaurant) who crafted the family’s grandfather clock. The Haworth Old Post Office, now a curio-filled café with an original Victorian counter, was where the sisters sent off their manuscripts to London under the pen names Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily), and Acton (Anne) Bell.The parsonage where the Brontës lived from 1825, was among the most enthralling stops I made. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey were all written in the home, which is now a museum. Seeing the sofa on which Emily Brontë died was a somber moment.The parsonage’s rooms showcase writing desks, clothing, and jewelry owned by the sisters, plus sketches by brother Branwell. Beside their creativity—encouraged by their enthusiastic, story-telling father—there was much darkness in the Brontës’ lives. Branwell fell into alcohol and opium addiction, and this once poorly sanitized village brimmed with reminders of death. One museum member told me that Haworth’s water supply “passed through the graves of 42,000 bodies.”Rambling across Haworth’s surrounding heather moorland brought me close to the sentiment of Wuthering Heights. The popular 4.5-mile Brontë Connection route starts in the village of Stanbury, reachable via the “Brontë Bus.” It follows the outskirts of the disused quarry site of Penistone Country Park and follows the rocky path that leads to the frothing Brontë waterfall, named after the family, which descends into Sladen Beck.Keen walkers might want to go as far as Ponden Kirk, the gritstone outcrop that inspired Emily’s depiction of Penistone Crags in the novel, before rejoining the road that leads back to Stanbury to pass Ponden Hall (the farmhouse that may have inspired her Thrushcross Grange).The description in the original Wuthering Heights novel by housekeeper Nelly Dean of “temporary brooks [crossing] our path, gurgling from the uplands” couldn’t be more fitting of the sodden, peaty bogs I’d experienced. Yet now, as I paused to take in the panoramic views, the clouds parted to reveal a bright blue sky. (Lucy McGuire)
Ordinarily, I’d object to the howling, bone-chilling wind on Haworth Moor. It turns a refreshing country walk into a test of tenacity. On the hike to the ruined Top Withens farmhouse, however, that icy wind feels fittingly atmospheric. A sunny idyll wouldn’t be very Wuthering Heights – the moody, weather-beaten setting is a key part of what makes Emily Bronte’s only published novel.This unforgiving but handsome slice of West Yorkshire moorland is likely to get many more boots trudging across it in 2026. The Emerald Fennell-directed movie, Wuthering Heights, starring Aussies Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, is likely to have a whole new generation setting off in search of Heathcliff’s windswept, isolated home.Bronte fans have long since adopted Top Withens as the real-life location, even though a plaque on the wall of the ruined farmhouse wall admits it may not be. “The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described,” it reads. “But the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights.”Architectural layouts be damned. Top Withens embodies the spirit of Wuthering Heights. It is bleakly beautiful, built on one floor into the hillside and guarded by a pair of spindly sycamore trees. The moorland landscape hasn’t changed much since Bronté’s only novel was published in 1847, with the reservoir and wind turbines being very much on the horizon, rather than disturbing the lonely, heather-swathed foreground. Crucially, Top Withens stands apart and alone. There is no building in sight that could pass muster as a neighbour.There is little doubt that the author would have walked here. She was born in the outer Bradford suburb of Thornton – where the Brontë Birthplace reopened as a small museum in 2025 – but lived for the vast majority of her life at the parsonage in Haworth.Her father, Patrick, was the perpetual curate at St Michael’s Church, on the other side of the graveyard from the Bronte family’s honey-stoned home. The sheep paddocks and moors start at the back of the parsonage, and Top Withens is nearly six kilometres away on foot. The most popular route also passes Brontë Falls, a small waterfall that was given its name post-literary fame.While the moorland is the best place to get a sense of Wuthering Heights’ setting, the Brontë Parsonage Museum gives much more insight into the author’s life.Emily Bronte’s personal tale is lapped by great waves of tragedy. Her mother, Maria, died within 18 months of moving to Haworth. Two of her elder sisters died of tuberculosis while away at school, and her brother, Branwell – a mildly talented painter – was a troubled alcoholic and opium addict. Branwell died in September 1848, three months before Emily died of tuberculosis, aged 30.Patrick Bronëe outlived all six of his children, and his character is most pervasive throughout the museum. An Irish immigrant, he was unusually well-educated, having studied at Cambridge. His poems were published, and the children grew up surrounded by books bearing their family name.The most memorable room of the parsonage is the dining room, and not just because Emily is widely believed to have died on its couch. This is the room where the three Bronte sisters would write, regularly flitting around the table to check on their siblings’ progress. Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Anne’s Agnes Grey were put together at the same time, around the same wooden table.Haworth village is no longer quite as the Brontes would have remembered it, although Branwell’s old haunts, the Old White Lion and the Black Bull, still stand. The hilly, pedestrianised main street is now lined with restaurants and literary-leaning gift shops, the result of an overnight success that was sustained long after the sisters died. The moorland, however, is still the same wild, brooding place that inspired Emily’s masterpiece. (David Whitley)
For many, classic English novels are regarded as untouchable works of literature, and adaptations can often face considerable scrutiny - yet this particular TV series appears to capture the 19th century with remarkable authenticity.Originally broadcast in 2006, this rendition of Jane Eyre brings Charlotte Brontë's beloved novel to life, chronicling the journey of its titular character as she navigates orphanhood while striving to carve out a better existence for herself.Spanning four episodes, the series delivers a breathtaking retelling of this timeless tale, with Ruth Wilson taking on the lead role alongside Toby Stephens as Edward Rochester. (Emily Malia)
Edgewood High School presentsby Jacklyn BackhausMcKinley Performing Arts Center, 2219 Monroe Street, Madison, WI, USAApril 24-25, 7:00PMFour literary heroines of the nineteenth century set conventionalism ablaze when they turn down marriage proposals from their equally famous gentlemen callers. What results is a confluence of love, anger, grief, and bloodshed, as the ensemble struggles to reconcile romantic ideologies of the past with their modern ideas of courtship. Everything you've learned about love from the pages of Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Little Women is turned upside down in this grand theatrical battle royale.
Once home to the famous literary siblings – who drew inspiration for their classic works from the neighbouring moorland – it attracts visitors from across the world, keen to see where the sisters wrote and how they lived.But whilst the past is central to any museum, parsonage bosses are also keen to look to the future.And the team's ambitious plans were outlined to Keighley MP Robbie Moore during a visit to the site.He met up with museum director Rebecca Yorke, who showed him around a historic building – bought by the Brontë Society last year – in the village's West Lane.The three derelict adjoining properties were acquired shortly before they were due to be sold at auction.They include the former studio of photographer Fred Smith, who was caretaker of the original Brontë Museum when it was situated above the Yorkshire Penny Bank in the early 1900s.Many of Smith's photographs, which document the Haworth of that time, are now in the Brontë Society archive and it's hoped some will be displayed in the building once renovations are complete.The premises will also provide additional space for the society's growing archive and team, and offer opportunities for closer engagement with residents and visitors.Following the release of the latest movie version of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, visitor numbers to the museum have enjoyed a boost.Mr Moore says: "It was fantastic to meet with Rebecca and hear about the society's exciting plans for the future."The Brontë Parsonage is one of the most important literary sites in the country and it was great to hear about the continued success of the museum – particularly following the recent Wuthering Heights film."A huge 'thank you' to Rebecca and the team for the update, and tour of the newly-acquired buildings in West Lane which have massive potential. I’m looking forward to seeing the plans progress."Rebecca says: "We were very happy to welcome Robbie to the museum and have the opportunity to update him on our recent successes and share our aims and ambitions for the future."We take our responsibilities as custodians of the Brontës' legacy and as a world-renowned visitor attraction very seriously, and are pleased to have our contribution to the area's cultural offer and economy recognised by our MP." (Alistair Shand)
Pick of the weekWuthering HeightsEmerald Fennell has done a grand job dialling up the scandal over her new adaptation of Emily Brontë’s windswept novel. But aside from the casting of a white actor (Jacob Elordi) as the arguably non-white Heathcliff – and an unexpected S&M subplot – this is the bodice-ripping historical romance most fans would wish for. Margot Robbie plays Cathy as a frustrated social climber torn between a life of luxury with Shazad Latif’s Edgar and the earthy lust offered by the uncouth Heathcliff. For its look, Fennell goes full gothic, à la Guillermo del Toro, with stormy skies, unbridled sex on the moors, ludicrous costumes and often bizarre interior design, as the love story comes to a boil.Friday 1 May, 8.25am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere (Simon Wardell)
For many years, Malouf divided his time between Sydney and Tuscany. Later, he returned to Queensland and lived in an apartment tower overlooking the beach at Surfers Paradise, where he first read Jane Eyre as a 12-year-old on summer holidays. (Nicola Heath)
For those unfamiliar with the premise of Jane Eyre, the 1847 novel was written by Charlotte Brontë. (Yes, she was Emily Brontë's older sister.) The story follows the eponymous orphaned character as she enters into service as a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she presides over the education of an orphaned French girl, Adèle Varens. Adele is the ward of Thornfield Hall's master, Edward Rochester. Despite Rochester's surly demeanor, he and Jane eventually fall in love. He proposes, she accepts—and then a haunting secret from Rochester's past emerges.The Chateau on Sunset borrows the major storyline and transplants it into the Golden Age of Hollywood. The backdrop is none other than the famed Chateau Marmont, whose history is just as tumultuous as the lives of the rich and famous who have sequestered behind its walls. In Lester's retelling, Jane becomes Aria Jones, an orphan sent from New York to live with her aunt, the mysterious former Hollywood legend Miss Devine Ray, at the Chateau. There, Aria makes it her business to blend in, hiding herself from her aunt's drug- and alcohol- induced stupors and evading the preying, powerful men who walk the halls. Her two closest friends are up-and-coming actresses Flitter Reeve and Calliope Burns. Aria wants one thing: To escape on her 18th birthday and live by the ocean. But all that is thrown to the wind when the hotel is purchased by brooding rockstar Theo Winchester, who promptly moves into the penthouse with his daughter, Adele.Lester captures the opulence, corruption, glamour, power, success and fear that coursed through the waning days of Hollywood's golden age, transposing characters from Jane Eyre so that the plot is familiar but the story wholly original.Aria is a compelling character, but not just because she's a sketch of one of my favorite heroines. In the author's note, Lester made the interesting observation that one of the sticking points of Jane Eyre is Rochester and his wife, Bertha. Bertha famously sets fire to Thornfield Hall, which causes Jane to flee and seemingly break up with Rochester. When someone says Jane Eyre, it's usually associated with "crazy wife in the attic." This is where Lester does Aria a good turn.Similarly to actual historical events, Chateau Marmont does indeed go up in flames—but what happens next is a story that puts the girl front and center. Instead of simply running back to Theo, Aria must decide who she is going to become. And, more importantly, who she wants to become. A wallflower content with operating behind the scenes and being invisible must realize that she's worthy of the spotlight. Lester's book is powerful to me because of the fact that Theo and his ex are the afterthought. The events that lead to the conclusion of Aria's story are unexpected, taking her far from the confines of LA and exploring how satisfaction isn't so much falling in love with another person as it is falling in love with herself. (Marissa Wu)
The Bearden theatre has taken on the production of Jane Eyre, a literary staple highlighting the internal struggles of a young woman set in early 19th century England.The play follows Jane as she navigates religious and moral hardships stemming from her relationships and conflicting setting.A towering chestnut tree roots the audience into the set. The tree is commonly interpreted as a symbol of Jane’s suffering due to Rochester’s villainous wife Bertha; however, Bearden theatre added a layer of emotion in the designing process.“In a lot of ways, the tree is also a point of safety for Jane…it’s more of a comforting place for her,” said senior and production manager Addison Pratt. [...]Altering their own production of Jane Eyre from 2005, the set crew believed introducing the tree could augment an already impressive production. Visually, the set piece adds a realistic element to the stage, framing Jane’s relationship with her setting. The chestnut tree will act as one of many interactive elements within the play.“This was a new edition that we added and I think it adds a lot,” Pratt said.The set will go beyond traditional physical props moved on and off the stage. Working closely with the theatre department at UT, the crew was able to utilize projection mapping within the show. This technical feature will allow certain visual effects to be precisely projected onto the set, heightening the emotion of the play.“We worked closely with the Clarence Brown Theatre downtown and have borrowed some projectors from them,” senior and set crew member Alex Mair said. “We’ve used some programs to projection map creative elements onto the stage for certain scenes.Added Pratt: “Our team has spent a lot of time really figuring out the different programs that we can use and finding a way to make the projections work really well on our stage, and it looks really cool.”The theatre department will step away from traditional auditorium seating for the show, as on stage seating deepens the audience-cast connection simply from their proximity to the stage. Both cast and crew look forward to the creative elements that will be in high definition for spectators.“While I think that traditional auditorium seating is great for big, flashier shows, you just feel so much more involved with the characters [through on stage seating],” Mair said. “You can see every single movement that’s happening, every single little detail, and it makes the story feel a lot more interactive.”Added Pratt: “It’s definitely a much more intimate experience, which I think is really cool.”Senior Caitlin Stout appreciates the creative liberty given to the crew throughout the production. Stout believes that as a member of set crew, it was her role to not only produce impressive design elements, but to aid the cast in their presentation. What turned into yet another showing of Bearden’s standard for creative set design first began with simple features for the cast to make their own.“We wanted the set to be a canvas for the actors to take on and not have to work around designs within the set,” she said. (Max Mead)
Students from Edgewood High School are presenting “You on the Moors Now” for an upcoming performance.“You on the Moors Now” is about four women from the 19th century novels that turn down marriage proposals.The performance tracks Jo March from “Little Women,” Elizabeth Bennet from “Pride and Prejudice,” Catherine Earnshaw from “Wuthering Heights” and Jane Eyre from “Jane Eyre” and follows them figuring out their romantic ideologies.“It’s really great to bring classic literature back to the stage in a modern retelling of it,” Bella Baldo, who plays Earnshaw, said. “Being able to bring themes from modern culture into classic literature and really they have been there all along.”Along with Baldo, Daphne Conner is casted as March, Ellie O’Day plays Jane Eyre and Ruthie Brenner plays the role of Bennet.“I’m really excited for them to see the battle scene because it’s really chaotic and obscured, but it’s also really funny at the same time,” O’Day said. “We have a lot of cool weapons.” (Calahan Steed)
Charlotte Brontë“One of my favorite books is the British classic ‘Jane Eyre,’ written by Charlotte Brontë and published in 1847. The main character, Jane Eyre, is a penniless, teenage orphan who exemplifies what it means to be true. In this fictional account, a man, Mr. Rochester, loves Miss Eyre but is unable to marry her. Instead, he begs Miss Eyre to live with him without the benefit of marriage. Miss Eyre loves Mr. Rochester as well, and for a moment she is tempted, asking herself, ‘Who in the world cares for you? Or who will be injured by what you do?’“Quickly Jane’s conscience answers: ‘I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God. … Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this. … If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth — so I have always believed. … Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.’“In a desperate moment of temptation, Jane Eyre was true to her beliefs, she trusted in the law given by God, and she planted her foot in resistance to temptation.”— Sister Ann M. Dibb, then the second counselor in the Young Women general presidency, April 2011 general conference, “I Believe in Being Honest and True” (Kaitlyn Bancroft)
NationalTheater Mannheim presentsSturmhöheafter the novel by Emily BrontëPremiere: 24 April 2026 at the Ales Kino FranklinConcept Charlotte Sprenger, Aleksandra Pavlović, Olivia EbertAdaptation Charlotte Sprenger, Olivia EbertDirection Charlotte SprengerWith: Jessica Higgins, Annemarie Brüntjen, Shirin Ali, Rocco Brück, Rahel Weiss and Fabian DottSturmhöhe is an untamed, dark fairy tale about an abysmal love, about violence, revenge and reconciliation, full of longing for nature and death, and without moral constraints. That this work came from the pen of a woman was a scandal in 1847. In Charlotte Sprenger's sensuous production, three sisters — inspired by the writing Brontë sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne — invent and play their way through this wild and free novel.Even as children, the Brontë sisters dreamt up fantasy worlds, thereby laying the foundation for their poems and novels. Their father's books, the moorland, the stormy weather and the headstrong people of their immediate surroundings inspire them with ideas for the grand adventures of their role-playing. The girls embody notorious heroes and courageous women, explore observed and invented behaviour, and shatter social stereotypes. On this evening they play together the story of Heathcliff, the foundling from a distant land, and Catherine Earnshaw, the tempestuous daughter from Yorkshire. As the evening unfolds, the sisters invent ever-new twists, the consequences of which they impose on one another as characters within their own story. After their father's death, brother Hindley suddenly becomes the Master of Wuthering Heights. He subjugates his siblings, drinks, gambles and squanders the family estate. And when Cathy marries the wealthy and well-bred Edgar Linton from the neighbouring property, a humiliated Heathcliff leaves the area. But the deep spiritual kinship of the sisters transcends every separation…
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Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore (Conservative) introduced a Parliamentary debate considering the impact windfarm development might have on 2,300 hectares of protected peatland.He argued the case against Calderdale Energy Park’s proposals to place up to 34 wind turbines on Walshaw Moor above Hebden Bridge which will impact on Calderdale and Bradford in West Yorkshire and Pendle in Lancashire.Calderdale Energy Park, whose statutory public consultation on the proposals runs until June 10, argues the site is in an area identified for generating on-shore wind power, helping deliver “reliable, home-grown renewable energy, helping to reduce energy costs, support local jobs and strengthen energy security”, the turbines capable of generating up to 240 mega watts (MW) on renewable energy.But Mr Moore said this would come at a price to protected peatland, including damaging a vital carbon store, among other impacts on nature, and have a severe impact on the setting of key cultural heritage.Taken together, that price would be too high, said Mr Moore in the debate.“Understandably, our much-loved Brontë Society is firmly against the proposed wind farm development across our heritage landscape, which encompasses Top Withens, believed to be the inspiration for the setting of ‘Wuthering Heights’.“That landscape, I might add, has a live application worked up right now for UNESCO world heritage status, along with listed status for Top Withens.“If this wind farm proposal goes ahead, that landscape will be blighted forever.“We know that because, even after the decommissioning stage of the wind farm, none of the infrastructure is proposed to be removed, apart from the turbines themselves.“The road infrastructure, all that cabling and those deep foundations that sit beneath the turbines are not proposed to be removed once the wind farm comes to the end of its life, blighting our heritage landscape and the peat forever.”Mr Moore said he had invited neighbouring MPs – for Shipley, Calder Valley, Halifax, Pendle and Clitheroe, and Burnley – to the debate and urged them to join him opposing the proposals, but was disappointed only Shipley MP Anna Dixon (Labour) and Calder Valley’s Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour) attended.Ms Dixon said she agreed with him that peatlands “are crucial in our fight against climate change” and also reduced flood risk, a very evident concern in Calder Valley.She had been contacted over the proposals by some constituents: “They rightly believe that protected peatland should be protected.“I agree with them, and I think that the Labour Government, and I hope the Minister, will give the same assurance – I believe that is why there has been a recent announcement that large infrastructure must also be covered by a biodiversity net gain.“I urge the Government to listen to the arguments made in this debate.“There could clearly be major negative impacts on our precious peatlands in this area of Yorkshire, and I ask that the Government look carefully and reconsider the proposals.”Mr Fenton-Glynn, who since the proposals were announced has been under pressure from some constituents to openly oppose the plans, said he knew the moorland well and it was a “uniquely beautiful landscape, resplendent with curlews, lapwings and other moorland birds” though in itself this would not be reason to block the plans as the country needed to ramp up green energy infrastructure.But following the science should inform the process: “The more we learn about peat and its role in absorbing carbon, the clearer it is that building on peat will do more harm than good,” he said.Mr Fenton-Glynn said his point was not about a development in Calderdale but about the principle of trying to tackle climate change and looking at that “in the round” with regard to developments on peat and whether any developments on peat make sense.“I think my position is fairly clear from what I am saying.“I followed the evidence where it led me, and it led me to the concerns that I have expressed to Ministers fairly constantly, to the point where I have made clear my view that building on protected peat is counter-productive to our climate change aims,” he said.Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Chris McDonald, responding for the Government, said: “From the contributions we have heard today, I would say there is strong agreement in this room on the need both to tackle climate change and to care for our special environments in the UK, including peatland.“Because peat soils are rich in carbon, disturbances will have climate impacts.“We therefore recognise that building infrastructure such as onshore wind on peatland can have detrimental impacts, and we appreciate that communities have valid concerns about that.“That is why we have protections in the planning system requiring careful consideration from developers and decision makers when onshore wind farm developments are proposed on peatlands.Mr McDonald said the Government was committed to publishing additional guidance regarding wind farm construction on peatland in England.The Government was also in ongoing discussions with the Scottish Government about developing a carbon calculator tool for England similar to the one currently used in Scotland, which could inform policy decisions around developments on peatlands, he said.Mr Moore said the debate had been worthwhile but he still had major concerns – the Government offering guidance rather than protection.He claimed neighbouring MPs had not put forward a position as to whether they would join him in campaigning “as strongly as we can against this application.”“Concerns have been raised, but there is no formal position,” said Mr Moore. (John Greenwood)
‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ by Anne Brontë (1848)“Wuthering Heights” may be the Brontë novel of the moment, but Anne Brontë’s 1848 novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” stands apart as one of the earliest feminist novels. The book begins with the arrival of the mysterious young widow Helen Graham and her son in a small town in Northern England. Rather than residing near the other villagers, Mrs. Graham chooses to inhabit a run down mansion on a hill named Wildfell Hall. Her behavior attracts disdain from others but intrigues a young farmer named Gilbert Markham. After he discovers her dark secret, Markham finally understands why Mrs. Graham hides away in her forbidding home. In “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” Brontë depicts the dark side of domesticity, rendering a staunch critique of the unequal treatment that women received in 19th century marriages. Mrs. Graham’s fearless abandonment of her husband makes her one of the first feminist characters. She does not desire to stick to convention but literally runs away from it. (Nina M. Jasanoff)
Among her strongest works are those of women. Rooted, sturdy and beefy-thighed, they seem to defy their apparent vulnerability. In the wonderful pastel on paper of Jane Eyre, the lone figure stands hands on her hips in a workaday red dress, nursing an air of rebellion. While her study for Germaine Greer shows the feminist icon sitting knees flopped open in a gesture of sexual defiance. (Sue Hubbard)
Wuthering Heights is one of those stories that always seems to be getting a new adaptation, with many proving somewhat divisive for fans of the original novel. Earlier this year, Emerald Fennell's take on the classic tale was released in cinemas, and, like many adaptations before it, left fans divided.As a huge fan of the original novel, I knew I just had to see the film; although, having seen some reviews ahead of time, I was rather sceptical. I was a little shocked, though, as the film actually ended up being worse than I had predicted – and felt more like bad fan-fiction than an adaptation of Emily Brontë's writing. From bizarre casting, to out-of-character storylines and cutting out half of the story, the film was ultimately rather disappointing.And while there are certainly plenty of other bad adaptations of Wuthering Heights out there (MTV's version, anyone?), there are some that are actually quite good.One that has remained popular since its release, at least among fans of the Brontës, is the 2009 mini-series starring Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley as Heathcliff and Cathy – a pairing whose chemistry was so good that they've since married in real life and welcomed two children together.True to the story, however, the pair's on-screen counterparts didn't quite get a happy ending. Unlike the 2026 adaptation, and many others too, the 2009 version opted against stopping halfway through the story.While the 2009 mini-series isn't without its issues, Heathcliff being white-washed being one inaccuracy that both adaptations are guilty of, the heart of the story itself is still there. (Isobel Pankhurst)
Joanne explained how Emily Bronte’s 1847 masterpiece has impacted her as an artist:The part of Wuthering Heights which always stays in forefront of my mind is actually within the third chapter where the narrator’s ghostly experience with an icy hand outside his window, the tree knocking at the window and Cathy’s ‘Let me in’” says Joanne, “then in the concluding chapters her ghost is always there, ever present.I hope that I can do it some kind of justice, not an easy thing to do by any means especially as my understanding of the meanings within it have developed and changed in parallel with my own life and emotional experiences.In a strange twist of fate when I was only 13, Kate Bush released her Wuthering Heights which at that time spoke to me exactly as I felt about the novel…and started me on new creative journeys with a passion for music, which in its turn led me to art college.That was 40 years ago and little could the young art student Joanne have known how much the dramatic landscapes that the novel conjured would change the direction of her life.Joanne said:The seeds of my love of Yorkshire were sown when I was very young, indeed decades before I ever visited the county. From the age of nine or ten I read novels voraciously: Dickens, Hardy, Elliot, Austin [sic] and the Brontës, and a lot of the literature, poems and plays of that era.But it was always the Brontë novels that fascinated me most, the ones that over the years I have read over and over, my understanding of which has grown and altered as I have. Through their writing I developed a love for the wilds and the moors that I had never seen: until I was in my 40s and came for a week every year with my four children, renting an old North Yorkshire farmhouse with no neighbours and no internet or telephone signal.And so another 20 years on and I am living here and breathing the wild and the wuthering, and wanting to try to express my own impressions of my favourite Brontë novel: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, in my own artistic medium of precious jewellery.During the past year, Joanne has been liaising with a stone carver from the renowned gemstone cutting region of Idar-Oberstein in Germany, to create a carved rock crystal image of Cathy. This carved head is approaching completion and she will have it at her studio for the launch of the Pateley Jewellery Quarter on the weekend of 25/26 April. The design, a vignette or picture piece, can be worn as a brooch or pendant but also is intended to be displayed as a work of art in precious materials.It will represent that ‘Cathy’ moment at the window which in many ways defines and saturates the whole story.Joanne said:Many completed pieces of jewellery in my studio have the influence of the Yorkshire landscape running within them. Indeed it has been an influence on my work for very many years. So now I am delighted that I can call this place my heartfelt home.I am always very happy to discuss my work and to create jewellery pieces for individual clients which will speak to them in a personal and life-affirming way. Since neolithic times people have felt the joy of creating and wearing jewellery, its possession seems to be an intrinsic part of the human condition. It feels the perfect time for me to create an iconic art piece of Wuthering Heights.
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Thu 23 Apr2pm Brotnë Space at the Old School Room7:30pm ZoomThis talk will be given by Professor Corinne Fowler, an author, public historian and co-curator of The Colonial Brontës exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in 2026.Corinne discusses Heathcliff's racial identity in Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights. The talk will detail the colonial reading material which shaped Emily Brontë’s conception of Heathcliff's background and character before discussing references to Heathcliff's racial identity in the novel itself as well as in film versions of Wuthering Heights. The talk ends by focusing on the real-life historical presence of African people in the local area which spanned both Emily's lifetime and the period covered by the novel.
Old School RoomThe history and landscape of Haworth continue to inspire many artists, writers and poets. We are delighted to host the launch of local poet Lydia Macpherson’s pamphlet The Heights (Calder Valley Poetry). Lydia now lives in the last inhabited house before Top Withens. Her five times great-grandfather Jonas Sunderland farmed Top Withens (widely believed to be the location for Wuthering Heights) during the lifetimes of the Brontës. Her first collection, Love Me Do (Salt, 2014), won the Crashaw Prize.Lydia will be joined by special guest poets Clare Shaw and Alan Buckley. Clare’s poetry collections include Towards a General Theory of Love (Bloodaxe, 2022) which won a Northern Writers’ Award. Their poetry is anthologised in the National Trust’s Nature Poems (2023) and 100 Queer Poems (Vintage Penguin Random House 2022). Alan Buckley’s collections include Touched (HappenStance, 2020) and Still (Blue Diode Press, 2025). He is a founding member editor of ignitionpress and has taught creative writing to young people with both First Story and Arvon.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the lovelorn Ophelia famously drowns. The prince of Denmark has cruelly spurned her, her father has died, and she’s stricken with grief. If only she had realized Taylor Swift’s vision for her: In the song “The Fate of Ophelia,” the pop star imagines that she has instead been saved by a new suitor. Her version of the tragic figure, Swift sings, is “no longer drowning and deceived, all because you came for me.”Hollywood has been making me think of Swift’s track quite a bit lately. The sparkly earworm deploys one of her favorite tricks: messing around with a literary classic for lyrical fodder. Cinema has been going through its own “Fate of Ophelia” era these past few months, with a litany of new adaptations that dramatically alter their source material. The writer-director Emerald Fennell turned Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s Gothic novel about obsession and social status, into erotic fanfiction. [...]Updating a classic isn’t inherently a bad idea; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a dutiful adaptation of Shelley’s 1818 novel, just won three Oscars, and Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has enjoyed an excellent box-office run. Yet most of these projects have been as superficial as Swift’s single, in which Ophelia survives just by pledging “allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes”—a cheeky reference to Swift’s fiancé, to be sure, but Ophelia’s problem was never really about the vibes. That reductiveness, though, works far better in a four-minute pop song than in a feature-length film. Call it the rise of CliffsNotes Cinema—watered-down transformations that offer glossy but thin summaries of the originals and strip away the challenging material that helped turn them into cultural mainstays in the first place. These movies make the provocative palatable: Uncomfortable relationships and nuanced characterizations—essentially, what made the stories endure—get lost in the fog of showy filmmaking. [...]This type of nuance all but disappears in CliffsNotes Cinema, which often looks incredible—I’m certainly taken with the costumes in Wuthering Heights, as well as with the soaring sets in Frankenstein —but robs its audience of the chance to analyze anything for themselves. That’s largely because these movies dull the sharpest edges of their source material, aiming for obvious takeaways regardless of how nonsensically they’re rendered. Despite never giving its titular character an opportunity to explore her original identity, The Bride! gleefully insists that she has become an avatar for female empowerment. Rather than explore the book’s larger point that class is an inescapable burden, Wuthering Heights makes its central conflict about whether its protagonists can be together. These films argue that their characters act on raw emotions: lust, fury, sadness. Yet these feelings fail to linger in the audience. Unlike a Taylor Swift song that gets stuck in your head, they just fade away. (Shirley Li)
4 'Wuthering Heights' (1847) by Emily Brontë“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” The recent Emerald Fennell movie version was divisive, but Emily Brontë's original is a bona fide classic. Wuthering Heights tells the story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, whose intense and destructive love shapes the lives of those around them across generations. Set on the windswept Yorkshire moors, the novel unfolds through layered narration, revealing the consequences of obsession and revenge.The backdrop reflects the characters’ inner turmoil; all wild, untamed, and unforgiving. Wuthering Heights is a classic tale of passion and pain. There are also explicit supernatural elements, though they are used sparingly. Catherine’s ghost (whether real or imagined) lingers over the story, blurring the boundary between life and death. But, as with the best Gothic fiction, the supernatural is less important than the emotional reality it expresses. [...]1 'Jane Eyre' (1847) by Charlotte Brontë“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.” Jane Eyre charts its heroine's evolution from orphan to fiercely independent woman. When she becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, Jane falls in love with the enigmatic Mr. Rochester, only to discover a dark secret hidden within the estate. Thornfield Hall is a quintessential Gothic setting, with its locked rooms and mysterious sounds and the storm-lashed moors around it, while Rochester’s secret introduces elements of suspense and horror.Structurally, the novel balances realism with Gothic intensity. It grounds its story in social reality, particularly the class and gender dynamics of the time, while also allowing moments of uncanny coincidence and heightened emotion to break through. Its biggest strength, though, is its compelling protagonist, a three-dimensional figure, torn between desire and principle, passion and restraint. (Luc Haasbroek)
Adapted by Katie AlleyBearden High School Theatre, Knoxcille, Tennessee, USApril 23-April 26Bearden High School Theatre proudly presents Jane Eyre, a sweeping stage adaptation originally devised in 2005 by director Katie Alley, featuring an original score.Join us April 23-26, 2026, and transport into Jane’s world as she journeys through hardship at Gateshead and Lowood to love, mystery, and self-discovery at Thornfield Hall.
Brontë expert, author and scholar Deborah Lutz is flying in from the USA to share her new biography with Scarborough audiences at Queen Street on the Friday at 10am..Her This Dark Night is the first full biography of Emily Brontë in more than 20 years. Emily was 27 when she started writing Wuthering Heights. Three years later, she was dead.Out of step with her own time and remembered as the strangest of the three Brontë sisters, she has always been hard to know, especially given the destruction of her papers.Deborah is one of the few people who has felt and examined much of the Brontë’s surviving material including letters, desks, chairs and books and all of the tiny poetry manuscripts and notebooks.These include the hand-written manuscript of Emily’s poems rediscovered in 2021 at Honresfield House near the Brontë family home, Haworth Parsonage.At the opening event, Deborah will reveal the politics and events of the era as well as the delights and tragedies of the Bronte family’s life, including Emily’s sisters Anne and Charlotte, which directly inspired much of Emily’s writing.It’s a fresh take on her short but momentous life which shows why so many of us are still fascinated by the Brontë family.Deborah will be in discussion with festival patron and former head of BBC Radio Helen Boaden.The Emily Brontë theme continues with Essie Fox, the Sunday Times best-selling author of seven historical novels, including The Somnambulist which was shortlisted for the National Book Awards. She is the host of the podcast Talking the Gothic.She will be talking about her reimagining of Wuthering Heights at Queen Street on the Friday at 12.30pm. Essie Fox’s new novel Catherine, told through the narrative voice of Catherine Earnshaw, is already being hailed as a classic in its own right.Heather French, festival organiser, said: “Essie’s retelling of Wuthering Heights is haunting and atmospheric, and I was glued to it."It’s also topical as we’re now seeing a renewed cultural fascination with all things gothic – in books, films and fashion. I’m really looking forward to these two Brontë-themed events and of course we have very strong Brontë connections here in Scarborough."Anne Brontë stayed in Scarborough and is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard. (Sue Wilkinson)
While she credits Daphne du Maurier and Charlotte Brontë as inspiration – “Rebecca and Jane Eyre were the original domestic thrillers,” she told the Times – her contemporary favourites include Verity by Colleen Hoover, Room by Emma Donoghue, and The Green Mile by Stephen King. (Ella Creamer)
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